News

Senior HASC Official Pushes Back on Office of Net Assessment Moves

Marc V. Schanz12/13/2013

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A senior member of the House Armed Services Committee is
pushing back against the Pentagon’s plan to remove the Office of Net Assessment
from its direct access to the Secretary of Defense, saying the move will
compromise the objectivity of ONA’s work. In
a host of recently
announced organizational changes, Defense Secretary Chuck
Hagel said the Office of Net Assessment, led by strategist Andrew Marshall, will be placed under the management of the
undersecretary of defense for policy. The office, however, has
vocal defenders in Congress who charge the move will
erode ONA’s value—which involves analysis of long-term threats and trends and
how they affect US security interests. The proposal is a “truly foolish
decision,” Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), chairman of the HASC seapower and
projection forces panel, said in a statement to the Daily Report. Moving ONA under OSD Policy would compromise its
independence, and make it vulnerable to political pressure, Forbes added. Since
the office’s founding in 1973, Marshall has reported directly to the SecDef.
“We need to build a plan to make (ONA) just as successful in the next 40
years,” Forbes added.